


Evanses

by scribe-tuesday (Leofuller)



Series: Back Up There [21]
Category: Original Work, Sports Fiction (not RPF)
Genre: Gen, Not the NHL, ice hockey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-20
Updated: 2019-07-20
Packaged: 2020-07-09 11:20:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19886743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leofuller/pseuds/scribe-tuesday
Summary: None of the Evans brothers grew up to play for the Devils, in the end





	Evanses

**Author's Note:**

> A character study of the Evans brothers.

The Evans family haven’t always been die hard Devils fans, although you’d never guess.

See, the Cardiff Devils didn’t form ‘til 1986, when Alwen Williams had already been Alwen Evans for four years and a couple of months. Owen turned three that year, and Ifan was born before Alwen and Rhys got to go to a game, so there were four in the family before anybody saw a Devils jersey chasing a puck.

Dai wasn’t born ‘til ‘88, though, and Gethin came along in ‘89 so they were born Devils fans, and it’s not like Ifan or Owen could remember the days before the Devils.

Owen’s the bossy one, when they play hockey out in the street with the other kids. Not quite the oldest in the neighbourhood, not even the loudest but the most forceful. Used to keeping his parcel of brothers in line, he spreads that out to their friends and everybody does what Owen Evans says.

Ifan’s always pushing, always trying to keep up. Owen might be in charge but Ifan’s going to be faster whether he’s chasing a ball up the road or skating down the ice. He’s going to score more goals, and then they have to pay him attention. Not just Owen Evans’ little brother.

One of Owen Evans’ little brothers.

Dai’s going to have to fight back. If Ifan wants to be the fastest, wants to get there first, then Dai’s going to get in the way so he can’t. Ifan wants to score goals, so Dai wants to stop him.

Everybody expects the Evans’ brothers to be a line, Owen and Ifan and Dai, three brothers in sync, reading each others’ minds, lethal in their casual games even if they’re in different age groups for the formal teams. But they face off instead, brother against brother in a competition that’s not always friendly even if they love each other.

What else are they going to do with Gethin but put him in the net? Owen wants to teach Ifan, teach Dai, share the secrets he learns because he trains with an older team than they do. Ifan should play like this, to score. Dai should play like that, to stop him. 

_ Gethin, you go in the net so we can practice. _

And they stick to their roles.

Owen’s a utility player. He’s a forward, unless his team needs defense, and then he’s defense. Loving the game, loving the ice beneath his blades but always with his eye to a wider picture than just his own role. 

And Alwen says to Rhys,  _ that boy of ours isn’t going to play for the Devils. _

And she’s right.

(Alwen Evans is always right.)

Owen’s got an eye for the game, and brothers all over the place, so he gets roped in to help the younger teams, starts out sort of coaching until one of the actual coaches takes him aside and says  _ boyo, you run a good game, have you ever thought about being a referee? _

And his brothers laugh, every time Owen sets his stick aside for stripes, chirping the games he skates as a linesman.

Doesn’t mean they’re not all proud the day he first puts on the armbands, mind.

Ifan still wants to score, still wants to drive to the net, but he’s got an Evans eye for the game and he’s a playmaker, not a superstar. 

Teams need playmakers, though, and there are places out there for guys like Ifan.

There are places out there, for guys like Dai.

He’s not the tallest man around, but he’s solid, Evans all the way through like his brothers. It’s hard to knock an Evans over.

Dai will grit his teeth and battle through, playing for years against his bigger (older) brothers, just as solid but with a few years more muscle on them until Dai’s done with puberty and he’s got time to put the muscle on, catch them up and overtake while Owen’s getting married, Ifan’s getting engaged.

Ifan hit the pro-leagues first, always faster, but he’s only ever had a twenty-two month head start and Dai’s been a thorn in his side since he learnt to crawl. Dai got there too, just behind him, chose a different team. Kept on getting in Ifan’s way.

What else could they do with Gethin but put him in the net?

Gethin stays where his brothers put him.

Nobody else wants to play goalie, when the kids play out in the street, so he stays in the space between the dustbins and he stops as many balls as they send his way.

He doesn’t stop them all, when it’s not his brothers facing him, when his brothers are off with their friends and he’s still out between the bins, giving the younger kids somebody to shoot on.

Nobody wants to play against you if you’re too good. Not when you’re just out playing in the street.

He has to go easy out in the street, but there’s work to be done on the ice.

Nobody’s trying to beat Gethin, when they’re kids. When Ifan scores he’s beating Dai and when Dai scores he’s beating Ifan and Owen just wants them to do it  _ right. _

So Gethin just practices with what they send his way, and he plays juniors without them because Dai plays up to Ifan’s age group and it’s a stretch too far for the age gap from Gethin to Ifan.

And he just keeps going. Owen’s spent their childhood telling his brothers what to do, and Ifan’s spent it surging ahead, and Dai’s spent it chasing Ifan, and since he learnt to walk Gethin’s just been plodding along behind them.

Rhys could never afford Devils season tickets, for him and Alwen, not with two (three, four) kids to feed. Rhys and Alwen didn’t have time for season tickets, with four little hockey players to ferry to training and games. Even single games, for birthdays celebrated long after the date, celebrated as soon as a gap in schedules allowed, needed planning, needed babysitters, needed other families to take on their sons and their to-ing and fro-ing.

Rhys and Alwen’s twenty-fifth wedding anniversary falls in the summer of 2005, and their four grown sons buy them season tickets. They’re away in England now, three of the four, only Owen at home starting his own family.

(It’s a girl. Ifan and Dai compete for best uncle. Gethin’s always her favourite.)

It’s a trek, to see their boys play, and if you’re driving out hours to see one you’ve got to drive out hours to see each of them because they might be twenty, thirty now but they still shout  _ that’s not fair _ if they think their brothers got more. And you can’t ever see all four at once, because they play for three teams and the best you can hope for is one on each team and Owen with the whistle, can’t get all four on the same ice. It takes planning, see, at the start of each season, looking at the schedules and planning out one game for each of them, one home game for each of the three youngest on days when the Devils aren’t playing, one game when Owen’s refereeing other people’s sons but none of theirs. Takes planning, see.

You can’t have a favourite son, out of four, so Alwen and Rhys treat them all the same and go to Devils games instead.


End file.
